What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

I wish. 18 months and he hates car rides without milk and snacks

 

It depends on how you go about it. If you spray the hell out of it you'll insulate the areas you hit a bit, but also increase the frontal area and reduce airflow. If you go easy on the paint and focus on just knocking down the reflection on the front edges of the cooling fins it won't have any impact. It sounds like either @ljh824 either kept calm and sane about the amount of paint he got on the fins, or the system is overbuilt enough that the loss of efficiency is not readily apparent.

That said, as I darken more and more of my truck I will probably end up doing the same thing. I might do a roll-on paint for the heat-exchanger area though to keep the paint on the very leading edge of the fins.

 

When I was that age, throwing my milk would have resulted in a sore ass.

 

How’d it turn out?

 

Oh well that's a different story. Mine can wait till we get where we are going. Plus I prepped her before I even bought the truck lol. She's pretty good about it.

 

I say let him hate it. Even if he's only 18 months old he can still learn two life lessons: You don't always get what you want, and life isn't always enjoyable.

That said, my wife has yet to convince me to have a child so my experience in these matters is limited to my memories of being taught those lessons growing up. If I do have a kid, I may not have the fortitude to teach that lesson myself.

 

I found one with a zipper in the middle of the mesh screen. I'm thinking I could just unzip it then put my daughters side down and keep the other side up. He doesn't try to get into the front seat unless I leave the truck so not worried about the mesh.

 

I did just that. All I wanted to do was knock down the shine behind there.

 

I like the idea of permanently sealing that vent. Anyone see a down side to doing so?
If I need fresh air I can always open a window! All of my vehicle I have tried to disable the fresh air feature.
Recirculate is the only setting I ever use.

 

Duct tape the top of it shut and see how it works for you. But im pretty sure defrost auto opens the fresh air flap.

 

Same here. Don't really like breathing exhaust fumes.

 

It does. And you can't close it as long as defrost is on.

 

I wanted to get these but the fit guide said 16” wouldn’t work but 17” would. please let us know how this goes!

 

I'm the opposite way. I use fresh-air exclusively unless either I spot something I don't want to smell (dead skunk, Bro-Dozer, car burning more oil than gas, somebody smoking weed while driving, etc.) or if I'm trying to quickly cool down the vehicle after starting. I've noticed in the past that I get a bit drowsy more easily if I keep it on recirculate for longer drives, which I attribute with no scientific measurement to reduced available oxygen. Either way works though. Neither is going to kill anyone.

 

I wonder if the Tacoma is anything like my last car in when it comes to defrost. My Mazda would also kick on the AC and heater at the same time to dry out the air going to the windshield before heating it back up.

 

Yes it does and that drives me crazy! I don't believe there is a need for it to do so.

 

There actually is a reason it does this. If your windows are fogging up then chances are there is a high moisture level inside the truck. Pulling air from outside will flush that moisture out of the truck and defog the windows faster. Turning on the AC makes it work even faster.

 

In my case if my windows fog up 99% of the time it is raining or moisture of the air outside the vehicle is actually higher. So opening the vent makes things worse.

 

There is also the issue of too much humidity in the cabin air. If it is high for a long period it can promote mold growth which obviously would be a bad thing.